Every good naturalist has questions.

Below are some of the common questions we receive from teachers. Check out the answer by clicking on the question. If your question isn't here, we're always available through our contact page.

HOW DOES A CLASS SIGN UP FOR A UNIT WITH BSP?

Simply contact us on our website or e-mail us at info@birdschoolproject.org. We are constantly looking for new schools to work with and would love to hear from you!

MY SCHOOL DOESN'T HAVE MUCH HABITAT, CAN YOU STILL RUN YOUR PROGRAM HERE?

Thanks for giving us the opportunity to say....BIRDS ARE EVERYWHERE! We have worked in the most urban parts of Los Angeles and in schools that have virtually no habitat, yet we still find birds every time. This question addresses one of the most central values to our program. Though we encourage people to get out into the wilderness as much as possible, people do not need to travel to such areas in order to connect with nature. There are infinite opportunities for nature study right out the back door and we are here to help people realize those opportunities. If your school is within walking distance of a green area, waterway, or park, we would prefer to work in such places.

HOW MUCH DO YOU CHARGE FOR YOUR PROGRAM?

Since we work with schools with a wide range of resource availability, the cost of our program is unique to each school and their respective financial situation.
As a standard, we charge $484 for a full day (over 3 hours/wk) 4 - week unit and $300 for a half day (less than 3 hours/wk) 4 - week unit.

Note: If your school has over 40% of students qualifying for the Federal Free & Reduced price lunch program, you may receive the unit for half price. Half price units cost:
$242 for a full day (over 3 hours/wk) 4-week unit and $150 for a half day (less than 3 hours/wk) 4-week unit.

Regardless of your school's financial situation, please contact us. We are eager to work with each school to figure out a way for us to come and work with their students.

CAN SCHOOLS RECEIVE A DISCOUNT?

Schools with greater than 40% of students qualifying for the Federal Free/Reduced Lunch Program can receive a 50% discount on our units. See answer to above question.

IS THERE A CERTAIN GRADE LEVEL THAT YOU WORK WITH?

Generally, we work with students in grades 5-8. Though, we have experience working with students of all ages. If your class does not fall into this range, please still get in touch with us. We are often available to make day trips to schools outside of our normal scope and can probably figure out a way to work with your students or at the very least offer you resources for conducting your own schoolyard birding.

WHAT TIME-FRAME DO YOU REQUIRE FOR YOUR WORKSHOPS?

Ideally, we would have the entire day to work with students. We are aware that this is rarely possible and most classes run for 50 - 90 minutes. We can certainly work within this range, but please note that if it is possible to give us more time, our programming will be far more effective. This is another reason why we have shifted from one-day workshops to four-week units----multiple visits allow us to delve deep into our curriculum despite short class periods.

WHAT TIME OF YEAR DO YOU RUN THESE PROGRAMS?

We offer our programs during the Fall and Spring seasons. We may be able to accommodate the occasional winter and summer workshops depending on the situation. Please be in touch with your requests and ideas and we would love to come up with a plan with you.

CAN YOU ACCOMMODATE MULTIPLE PERIODS OF THE SAME CLASS? WHAT ABOUT MULTIPLE GRADE LEVELS?

Yes! We understand that many middle school and high school science teachers have multiple periods of the same class each day. We are prepared to work for an entire school day if need be. If you teach multiple grades in a single day, we can tailor our lessons to each individual grade level as we meet with them. This will probably take a little more planning and discussion between us and the teacher, but we have total faith that we can make just about any situation work.

DO YOU NEED ANYTHING IN TERMS OF SPACE, SUPPLIES, OR AV EQUIPMENT?

For the most part, we are a self-contained program on wheels and can show up pretty much anywhere and run our lessons. For some lessons, it is preferable to have some sort of image projector and a computer plug-in, but it is not necessary. We will work with you to ensure we have everything we need.

What if I want my class to study something other than birds?

We strongly believe that birds are just one of the gateways into the lifelong joy of being curious in nature. The skills we teach are taught through the lens of birds but are intended to be useful with absolutely anything that students find interesting outside. Once stusdents and teachers go through our program, their newly acuired skills will be useful throughout years of science and other disciplines.